Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Working Lives and Spatial Practices of Digital Media Developers

该项目将分析数字媒体和软件的生产以及空间转换和工作实践，以及它们对之作出贡献的地方。它的具体目的是研究影响数字媒体开发人员的工作实践和工作场所的特权制度--特别是性别特权和排他性男性标准--以批判性地揭示导致并永久将女性软件工程师排除在数字媒体公司之外的条件。需要调查的具体研究问题包括：数字媒体开发人员如何在数字媒体工作中进行和构建日常工作实践？数字媒体开发人员的物理工作空间是什么？他们如何支持或限制特定的工作实践？数字媒体开发人员的工作实践和空间在哪些方面具有性别色彩？通过对旧金山数字媒体工作场所性别空间实践和权力动态的详细研究，本研究将为包括工作社会学、新媒体、社交媒体、地理学、女权主义理论和STS在内的一系列学术学科提供理论理解。就更广泛的影响而言，这项研究的结果将为人口中代表性不足的部分扩大STEM劳动力的参与提供信息并加强努力。本研究项目所在的理论框架结合了文化经济地理学、女权主义经济地理学和工作社会学的见解，强调了语言、意义、符号、权力和主体身份以及经济领域中性别和/或种族主义表现的重要性。该项目借鉴并促进了这些领域的研究，指出高科技和其他高端服务部门(如金融)的工作方式提出了排他性的特定工作场所做法和男子气概表现。通过准确地分析性别偏见如何构成日常环境中正常化的经济实践的文化组成部分，这项研究的首要目标是评估如何实现积极的变化，使女性和其他代表性不足的群体更广泛地参与数字媒体和软件行业。使用的方法包括参与者观察和对旧金山数字媒体开发商的半结构化采访，旧金山有数百家数字媒体公司。

This project will analyze the production of digital media and software and the spatial transformations and work practices and places to which they contribute. Its specific aim is to examine the systems of privilege - especially gendered privilege and exclusionary standards of masculinity - that influence the work practices and workplaces of digital media developers to shed critical light on the conditions leading to and perpetuating the exclusion of women software engineers from digital media firms. Specific research questions to be investigated include: How are everyday work practices conducted and structured in digital media work by its developers? What are the physical working spaces of digital media developers and how do they support or restrict particular work practices? In what ways are digital media developers' work practices and spaces gendered? Through a detailed study of the gendered spatial practices and dynamics of power in digital media workplaces in San Francisco, this research will contribute theoretical understanding to a range of scholarly disciplines including the sociology of work, new media, social media, geography, feminist theory, and STS. In terms of broader impacts, the findings of this research will inform and enhance efforts to expand participation in the STEM workforce by under-represented segments of the population.The theoretical framework in which this research project is situated incorporates insights from cultural economic geography, feminist economic geography, and the sociology of work, which emphasize the importance of language, meaning, symbols, power, and subject identities and gendered and/or racialized performances in the economic sphere. The project draws on and contributes to research in these fields that point to the manner in which high tech and other high end service sector (e.g., finance) work presents particular workplace practices and performances of masculinity that are exclusionary. By analyzing precisely how gender bias constitutes a cultural component of economic practice that is normalized in everyday settings, the overarching objective of this study is to assess how positive change toward the broader inclusion of women and other under-represented groups in the digital media and software industry may be accomplished. Methods to be utilized include participant observation and semi-structured interviews with digital media developers in San Francisco, where several hundred digital media firms are located.